Bengals Booth Podcast: Tomorrow Tomorrow

you'll want to draft him for your fantasy team. I'll talk to my broadcast partner Dave Lapham about the big questions going into training camp, and lap will also reminisce about what training camp was like under the legendary Paul Brown. And in this week's fun Facts conversation, you'll get to

know new offensive coordinator Brian Callahan. He'll tell us what it was like as a player to be part of the longest winning streak in high school football history, and he'll tell us why he never wears the Super Bowl ring he won as an assistant coach with the Denver Broncos.

Those conversations are straight ahead, but first, here's a quick reminder that you can have the latest edition of this podcast delivered right to your phone, tablet, or computer by subscribing on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, Spotify, or pod Bean. It's the greatest invention since Game of Thrones episode recaps. So I'm just a little bit late to the party. My wife and I are finally watching Game of Thrones.

We're on season three, and I'm pretty sure I would be missing a ton if not for the episode recaps available online. So if you didn't watch GOOT and decide to finally take the plunge, don't worry if it seems confusing. The episode recaps will save the day. Now time for football by any reason. In a bowl measure, Joe Mixon had a sensational second year in the NFL. He led the AFC in rushing despite missing two games, added forty

three receptions and scored nine touchdowns. But as he visited with reporters in front of his locker on Friday, Joe made it clear that he expects to have Todd Gurley like numbers now that the Bengals are basically running the Rams offense. What's that mean? Well, over the last two years, between rushing and receiving, Gurley averaged one thousand, nine hundred sixty two yards and twenty touchdowns. Here's the Q and

A with Mixon, who turned twenty three this week. Do you think the so called experts, if you have a kind of you know, I mean, you've kind of looked the town on his team overall. I mean, I mean they always do. They did from even when I was in college or high school. They always did that to the baas. I mean, at the end of the day, i gotta say, I'm not worried about it. When I go out there and when people got to line up against me, they're gonna know, they're gonna know who I am,

you know what I'm saying. So I'm not worried about that. I'm not worried about no ranking. At the end of the day, real football players, real football fans, owners, whatever the case may be, they know they know what I could do. So I'm not worried about you know what I'm saying, No preseason ranking or how they rank whoever. I mean, at the end of the day, it's all opinionated. Anyway you act. Any back in the league, I'm sure it's about fifteen backs that'll be like, oh, I'm number one.

I'm number one. I mean, at the end of the day, we all felt like that. But at the same time, when you go look into skill set and what they could do for the team, I mean, it's the proof is in the pudding. I could do it. I'll do it all. That's just what I do. But like I said, I just gotta I gotta be that much better than everybody. So that's what I'm gonna do. I was just keep different. I was just walking. I mean, really, the schemes commatically.

You know how coach Taylor he come in and you know, the like I said, the offense is the way he got it set up. It's it's crazy. It's night and day from where everybody has seen in these past years between the Bengals or old Bengals or whatever the case may be. But you know, because Taylor, he got it to where it's gonna be a nightmare for the defense,

you know what I'm saying. So you know, like I said, I look forward to it, and you know, everybody gonna take it upon themselves to be the best them in his offense, and you know you can count on you know what I'm saying, The people and the leaders that's out there to go deliver. Like I said, I can't wait. I mean, sounds like they're kind of running. I mean, if that's what they're gonna do, I'm gonna do it. But at the end of the day, I mean, I

just gotta be in shape. I gotta be ready to put on I gotta be ready to do all of that. Like I say, I'll take it upon me. I'll take it upon myself. You know what I'm saying, to be able to do these things and do it at a high level. And that's what I'm gonna do. I don't care what you know what I'm saying. Nobody gonna say he did see that. So what I mean, I could do it. That's just what I do. This is your

third year. You're obviously a puffle wint of this offense to you, do you start thinking about leadership and maybe taking that next step in that regard. Yeah, I mean, at the end of the day, I know, I know I'm a I know I'm a vocal leader, and i know I'm anna lead by example. I mean, everybody on the offense, even on the defense, not that coaches know that, um, you know, it might not be you know where I'm

they put me out at the captain or something. But at the same time, they know they know who to lean on, they know who to go to when they need when they need that talking to I'm gonna talk to him. I'm gonna get them ready, I say, I'll take that upon myself. I don't care. Like you know, I'm a third year player and this, this and that. I mean, that's just what I've always done. I didn't get that year and year out, you know what I'm saying. So you know, they and they respect it because you

know I'm doing you know what I'm saying. You know I'm telling I'm doing what I'm saying. You know what I'm saying. So at the end of the day, I just got to go out there and you know, like I said, lead by example, and if it's to do whatever I can, you know, being vocal, and I'll do that too, but you know, for the most part, you know, go out there, lead by example and then everybody else gonna follow. As somebody's flocking, that's when we go go ahead and pick him up. How would you describe Aj

Green as a leader? AJ Green, He's a He's a leader by example, you know, AJ, he don't he don't talk too much. You know what I'm saying. He if it's if it's like a big game or something, then and you know he feeling you know, emotional, he might say a couple of words, but at the same time, you know he gonna go out there and leave by example. He don't need to say too much. You know what you're gonna get out of Aja. You know what I'm saying. So, you know me, I felt like I could do I

could do the balance. If you need me to be a vocal leader, I'm gonna do that. You know, we're gonna always lead by example, But at the end of the day, you need me to be vocal, I could do that. But you know, every like I said, everybody know you know who the real you know what I'm saying, cop ins or who who to lean on on the team, And that's just what it is. And you know, like I said, you can take that upon ourselves. That's I've always been like that and I'm gonna always be like that.

So ain't nothing gonna change. That's all. You clowning with him when we were talking to him a little bit ago. He didn't break is there another guy in this locker room that could say stone to face it's like that, Uh, probably, you know, I can. Yeah, other than that, and it's not too many people that you know gone, you know, they probably break. I think they a break. But you know, like I said, you ajauc right there, that's AJ. You

come to USC behind closed doors. I mean, at the end of the day, you know, here real down the earth dude. I never met an NFL player that at that caliber level that is that down the earth and humble is AJ Grhant. I mean I didn't met a lot of them. And just the way he goes about himself being professional, and you know, even the way he just like he having fun. You know it might not be everybody else loud and having fun type of stuff.

I mean, that's just not AJ. I mean, at the end of the day, like I said, he's the most professional U down the earth guy or like I said, on that caliber level that you could tell that having changed one bit. And you know, I always respected that out of a j since day one. And you know, I'm sure. I mean he and it's a nineteen year or something like that, and he, you know, like I said, the way he handles himself and the way he goes

about things. I mean, you know, hopefully I could be able to show one day with a younger guy, you know, be like, Okay, Joe's he wanted. The humblest dudes you know that I've ever met. Like I said, I feel that way about Aja, and I'm sure a lot of people do. But I mean, just like I said, the calorable level at Aja his own you know, he Hall of Fame bound. And you know a lot of people they be, you know, big headed and all of that. Aja is super down the earth, most humble dude that

I've ever met. And I'll take that, you know, saying it a great with me. I mean, he just is. You've talked about trying to take another step forward this year, let the league in rushing last year? In your own mind, were you good last year? Were you great? Were you okay? How did you feel? Um? I think I think I did a good job. At the end of the day. The lineman, you know, that's that's really who who created it,

you know what I'm saying. The receivers, block and down field, all of them dudes, they play a part of it. At the end of the day, I could have did a whole hell of a lot better. I mean, everybody think he was that good that year. At the same time, I left a lot of yards on the field. You might not think so because I had a lot, But at the same time, there's a lot more other yards that you know it was there that I could have got. But I mean it's just little things that plays a

part of it. I mean, at the end of the day, like I said, this year, I'm gonna put myself on that that that pedestals who are I just got to be that much better, you know than everybody else. I mean, that's just what I'm gonna do. You know. The offense we got and the players around us and the coaches around us, they're gonna get us in that position to be able to do that. So, like I said, it's it's a lot in store for us. Just gotta go out there, you know, when the time comes and deliver.

I mean, that's all it is to it, man, and really nothing else I saw that this is to it. You seem like you're bubbling with excitement the opportunity to play in this offense. Oh yeah, for sure. I mean if you were to see the the opportunity that a certain individual can do on the offense, and it's not being a quarterback. He'd be like, okay, like man like, hopefully I could be able to do that, you know what I'm saying. And the film me and the film

speak for itself. You see the Rams running wild all day like and we got that same offense, And I mean, I will, I will think we have better players than them, you know what I'm saying, So at least offensive weapons, and like I said, I will think that we could do the same stuff, if not more than they can. If anybody side and said, look, we're gonna be We're gonna focus on the run. Um. I mean at the end of the day, to our offense and what we run,

it's the run starts first. And by the run starting first, it's set ups the play actions and it's set up the jets suite, just set up the shots down the field. At the end of the day, if our run is going, then our past will be on two. And you know, by our past and our run being on at the same time, you gotta play the defense honest. If you ain't, it's on defense. If the defense not playing honest. And at the end of the day, you're not doing what

you're supposed to be doing on offense. And I feel like, you know, you know, me being a back that I am and capable of being, and the receivers that we have with aj you know on the outside and Tyler and the slot. You know what I'm saying. You got John on outside, Cody on the outside, them boys, they're gonna be able to spread, you know, the ball around,

and you got to play it honest. If you don't play honest and you just gonna have to pick take it, You're gonna have to take your choice and your chance to stop in the past getting extra dvs or extra big guys for the run. And at the end of the day, our offense should be so good we could be whatever defense out there, no matter what personnel they running. And you know, like I said, we just gotta do whatever we can man and put ourselves in position to

excel in that level. Um. But I mean, it'll it'll come, and you know it's it's en due time. I mean, it's only so much we can say right now. But you know when when when the games start to come home, we'll be there for you. I ever even heard the name Zach Taylor. Did you watch the Rams the last two years and go, man, why can't they be stop these guys? Yeah? Yeah, for sure. And you know when you see Todd Gurley doing the things that he's done in that offense, she'd be like what, like, what the

hell do they got going on? Like you know what I'm saying. But you know, when when you get coach Taylor bringing in that offense and you know, doing those things and the stuff that Todd did and the stuff that I know that I could be able to do the same thing, you know, if not more, then I mean, who wouldn't be excited? You know what I'm saying. Todd

is a great player, like a great running back. Like it ain't it ain't no, no, I'm saying, it's you get one Tidd decades, just take one, like like decades to get one Ted Gurley. You know what I'm saying. Todd as a special player in the league. You know what I'm saying. But at the same time, when when when we get that opportunity and you see what he could do and Coach Taylor bringing in that same thing,

I mean, who wouldn't get excited? Who would last year do you feel like you're gonna get the same mount. I mean, I mean, at the end of the day, only time would tell. I mean, you never know how the game goes and things like that. But at the same time, I felt like, whatever touches that I get, I'm gonna be able to, you know, put on no matter what if it's in the past, are in the run.

So I said, I just gotta be in physical shape and uh, you know, just to be able to take on that role and at that pounding of getting the rock and you know, like I said, I felt like I'd being great shaped for it. And now I's got to make sure when the time comes, it's gotta be ready. That's it. Last year, Joe Mixon became just the second running back in team history to lead his conference in rushing. Do you know the other one? Not Corey Dillon, not

Ruddy Johnson, not James Brooks, and not Ikey Woods. It was Paul Robinson who led the AFL in rushing in the bengals very first season. When the team opens training camp on Saturday, it will be Dave Lapham's forty fourth with the Bengals, ten as a player and thirty four as a broadcaster. We began our training camp discussion with memories of his very first one lap. We are recording the day before training camp begins, and you're playing days. Were you excited today or were you dreading what was

to come? I guess it all depended on the year, you know. I remember, you know, my first training camp. You talk about, you know, not knowing anything from an environmental standpoint or expectations. I mean it was also new and I can just remember, you know, going into the cafeteria, getting my food, sitting over in a corner by myself, and just not saying boot anybody. You know. It's like I took on the approach that rookies are not to be seen or heard from, you know, unless you're invited

into a group or whatever the case may be. So I do remember just like looking around and just trying to observe as any things that I could observe, try to absorb and sponge in as much of the new environment as possible. And um, just man, don't don't don't DVA, keep your keep your nose to the grindstone. Um, if you have questions, don't be afraid to ask him, obviously, and then you find out veterans that you can you can trust, and guys that want to help you and

all that sort of things. That rookie year it's a it's a big adjustment. Even though you played at a you know, a major college program and such, it's a different dynamic coming to the NFL. And I'll never forget the first pregame talk. Paul Brown gets up there with his Benjamin Franklin glasses on and and his notes and addresses the team and I'm thinking, man, this is this is unbelievable. This guys, he's in the Hall of Fame coach.

You know, I can't believe I'm here. Go from Bench sports Wild, hall of Fame college coach my senior year to Paul Brown, Hall of Fame professional coach, my rookie in the NFL. And I thought, man, I am unlucky, dude, you know, go from one coach like that to another one. And they both had unbelievable respect for each other. Paul Brown really respected, you know, Bench Schwartzwald because he got a lot of guys from Syracuse over the years between

his Cleveland Brown and Cincinnati Bengal teams. And of course Ben Schwartzwald thought you know, the moon rose and the sun rose, and said on Paul Brown. For sure, when Paul would get up and do that beginning of camp speech that he was famous for, what did you think? You know, I thought that he was. He was no nonsense. You know, he's a very accomplished orator. You know, he had he had a very strong message and h and he gave it the same message every year, the same speech.

So you know, the veteran guys were all bored by it, and I'm like, on every word, I was like mesmerized, and you know, he covered a lot of things and I just looking at him, I thought, you know, this guy is uh, he's impressive. And then the more I got to know him as a rookie player, it was like, you know, I think if he got into politics, he

would have been president. I think if he got into business, he would have run p And you know, he's just that kind of guy, just unbelievably intelligent, you know, ahead of the game. All the things that he that he invented, including the face mask and so many things that are taken for granted today. Paul Brown was the originator and so he just was and the thing that impressed me too, is his organizational ability when he get out of the

coaching part of it. Even as a coach, he'd hired an assistant coach that he felt like he could trust and then let him do his job. He let him do his work, and if you didn't do it, he'd move on from you. But you get an opportunity to do it and do it well. So I think his organizational ability his ability to judge people and put him in positions to succeed and surround them with methodology and ways to succeed. He was a brilliant guy, very brilliant.

Zach Taylor's first training camp as the Bengals head coach is going to look a lot different from what you experienced as an NFL player. Practices will be two hours, no two of days, no Oklahoma drill, no half line drill. What do you think Paul Brown was like that? Paul was? I mean, a two hour practice was a long practice for Paul, but it was very quick tempo and h His belief was, you're not on your own schedule. We're

not going to beat you up. You did you know live we had nine on seven run game, we had live pass rush and things like that, but it wasn't he didn't really scrimmage at the end of practice. We'd we'd have a few plays of scrimmage, but nothing, you know, like a half an hour scrimmage or anything like that. But Forrest greg though, man, his training camps were, I mean they were they were tough. They were challenging mentally,

physically everywhere they could challenge you. But you know, Forrest had the credibility of Lombardi asked him to at least do what he's asking us to do. Maybe more so he did it. He's not asking us to do anything he didn't do. He's still alive and walking and ticking.

So let's let's see what we can get done. But I mean the conditioning part of it, in full pads, the up downs, you know, the famous grass drills running place, hit the ground, you know, I have to hit it on your belly, bounce up, and you know, we do sets of thirty, like three sets of thirty of them, and it's like your tongue's dragging at that point. And then practice hasn't even started yet, you know, it's like,

oh my gosh. And they were very physical, and I remember we had the goal line stand against US in Super Bowl sixteen, and the very first practice the following year for training camp, we basically stretched, took a lap around the field and blew his whistl was a live goal line scrimmage. That will never happen on my watch again. And it was like, got your next shortened, you know, fifteen minutes into training camp in that nineteen eighty two season,

that strike shortened season. So that was that was that was interesting. He was his training camps were by far the most physical, that most physical thing I'd ever been through in my life, football, non football, whatever. You'd be two inches taller if not for US training camps. In your mind, is there a fine line between how hard you need to work to be ready to play NFL

football and keeping guys fresh and healthy? Yeah, And it's so different now because back then, you know, we'd have one mandatory camp in the offseason, and I mean I had an offseason job. Most guys had an offseason job. It was you know, you weren't making the money that

football makes today. And uh, you know, plus the fact that I wanted to try to prepare myself for life after football because it could have been at any season, So I wanted to do things to eliminate vocations, if nothing else, and get experience and exposure in different things.

And I had like, you know, six or seven different offseason jobs from teaching to you know, selling chemicals, selling adhesives, working at a savings and loan, all kinds of different jobs, you know, just to see what I might like and not like. And so guys, I mean I work out in my lunch period and I'd come in earlier in the morning so I could take an hour and a half lunch and go lift, go down to spinning field, lift you might run, and all that sort of thing,

and then come back and work in the afternoon. So it wasn't Now it's a year round thing. I mean, they're conditioning, as we know, you know, all year round, and um they have you know, the OTAs and the mandatory mini camps and all those sort of things. So it's it's guys don't really get out of shape as much as guys used to back in those years, and a lot of times guys would literally play themselves in

the shape at training camp. It would be my second year in the in the league in nineteen seventy five, we had a Hall of Fame game against the Redskins. So we had seven preseason games. We had training camp for nine weeks. I mean, I my son was born and you know, didn't see him for two and a half months. You know, it was like, geez, this is crazy. But that that was. That was the lifestyle of the NFL in those in those years or so training camps. I think they felt like they had to be a

lot different. But when you look at it, guys would come into training camp not in very good shape at all, and they just beat them to death initially, and they'd wonder why they had pulled muscles and all these and guys weren't ready for the A lot of guys weren't. I never tried to let myself, you know, get that. I always felt like if I let myself get that badly out of shape, I'm gonna lose your job. Man. You know, it's a competitive world, not NFL. Man. You

gotta keep yourself physically and mentally ready. But some guys would just you know, take it for granted and show up and early in camp have some kind of muscle pull that they shouldn't have really had. But so and like I can remember too back then, it would be nights one hundred percent humidity and one water break. Like back then, you were soft. If you drank water and they give you salt tablets, you know, it's like, oh, this is but it was just it was like the

reverse of what should have been. And I can remember just losing literally number one practice, losing sixteen pounds waiting in the morning, waiting out after the second practice was sixteen pounds of water weight now and lunch. You tried to make it up in between, but you couldn't you make it up that fast. And you talk about man trying to just pound fluids and make sure you don't cramp to death, you know. So, yeah, training camp was so different back then. It was crazy. Seven preseason games

has to be the record. No team ever played more than seven preseason games than it. No, I wouldn't think so, you know, because the Hall of Fame game was on a rotation, so you know, you get that extra one and it's like, I'm thinking I was only this, you know my rookie years. Is my second year in the league, and I'm thinking two years ago we only played eleven games in a regular season in college. We're playing seven games,

don't even count. I mean, none of them even mena hill of beans, you know, and then so we play seven that don't count, and then we played fourteen to count. Crazy. All right, let's talk about the latest Bengals news, beginning with the return of Andre Smith. Do you figure, all right, there's your third tackle or is there still a chance in your mind that the Bengals will be looking to make a deal or trying to find, you know, the

best available guy after cuts? Yeah, I mean, I think I think that as an organization, they probably always continue that on a daily basis. You're looking to improve your roster, you know, from one to fifty three. Once you get that final fifty three men roster, you're trying to improve it as much as you can. I think that they feel much better about where they are. I mean, because literally, you had two tackles. How are you gonna play preseason games?

Are you gonna You're gonna kick these guards out and have them play tackle for over a half maybe three quarters of a preseason game where some of them might not even obviously make the team and others It's like you're taking away reps that maybe they need to have more at guard. Now you're kicking them out there at tackle. They may not even play it during the season, so you were just short bodies. So to get somebody in there to just, uh, you know, take reps like that.

But there were other guys out there, you know, like guys like Perkins and guys like that that are going to get reps in the preseason games and try to hook on either here or other NFL teams. But I think I think to have who could what could be your third tackle there from day one a training camp taking reps with offensive lineman that will be making the

football team, I think it is a plus. So I think that to get that signing done when they did, I think before training camp even started, I think as a as a positive because there was I mean, it was you didn't have to be a football linstein to realize, Man, we got a hole there, you know, at that tackle spot. And as we've talked about before, you're gonna find in your five best lineman. If you've got a guy that can play tackle, he can usually kick inside to play guard.

So I mean, you're gonna find your five best offensive lineman. It's just who's going to be that third tackle in that or that swing tackle that can play both right and left. For what it's worth. In shorts and a T shirt, at least, Andrea appeared to be in decent shape. Yeah, I think I agree with you. I think he's uh. I think he's been working in you know, this is his you know, he's in double digit's career now in

the National Football League. So I think not that he ever took anything for granted, But if he did, I don't think he does anymore. And I think he's he's got a career and a story that he can tell some of the younger guys, you know, maybe things to avoid, things to do, you know, accentuate this, stay away from that, and you'll you'll have a successful NFL career. Plus the fact of having you know, played in a hundred games, over ninety of him here in his career with the Bengals,

that he's he's seen a lot. You've seen a lot of players, he's seen a lot of defensive configurations, He's seen a lot of things that he can help, you know, young lineman with advanced their careers. News release came out on Friday morning that Billy Price begins the season on the non football injury list. That's also the case for long snapper Clark Harris. Let's start with Billy Price. They're not saying much about whatever the injury is, but they

are saying it it did not appear to be too serious. Yeah, I think it's a sounds like it's a precautionary thing, you know, as much as anything. I think they want to make sure that he's that he's right, that he's one hundred percent right before he starts to you know, to take on the grind of an NFL season. And honestly, Dan the first as we know, the first few days and not even in pads. I mean they really they break them in easily. So it's almost like an extension

of a mandatory mini camp at this stage. And I'm not saying, oh, yeah, you know it's not important, you can skip it. But if you have to miss something, you know, I think that would be the stage where it would be the most you know, you could overcome it.

I'm trying to say, I guess it's the easiest rather than missing you know, halfway into training camp or towards the end of training camp and then starting a regular season coming off of an injury that you've had to take some time off, so hopefully, you know, let it heal and uh, like I'm saying, hopefully it's not that significant.

Hopefully let it heal up and then get right into it and uh and get the pads on and start working with that with that offensive line that you're going to be a very important industrial part of making all the calls and directing traffic and all the responsibilities of the center house. And Clark Harris's case, with his track record and his experience, I assume that if he's healthy by September first, it doesn't even matter how much practice

time he gets in, He'll be fine as your long snapper. Yeah, they signed Dan God, so there's a long snapper, and I'm thinking, you know, why why do we have to have two long snapper as a training camp? It's not really that that necessary, that essential. I mean, every team has a backup deep snapper long snapper, but you don't. You don't usually necessarily have, particularly in Clark's case, where he hasn't had a miss execution in his career. Here knock on wood with the Bengals, so um, you know,

he had been in a recent Pro Bowl. But now obviously it makes sense with him a little bit nicked up and on the injury list at this point in time. I want to talk to you about the offensive line because I was listening to another podcast a week or two ago specifically on offensive line play, and the person doing it talked about how the Rams offense will make the Bengals offensive line look better even if the individual players aren't better. In other words, it's an offensive line

friendly scheme. Right. Yeah, That's that's been my thought and about it as well. And I can speak from experience. When your running game is going well, and the running game has to go well or it doesn't, you know, your your play action passing game isn't going to work. You do have to have the threat of the run.

If you're getting your run stuffed the play action pass, you're going to find yourself in down in distance situations where it's tough to play action pass and you're gonna have to drop back and pass and protect the quarterback. But if you're able to create positive plays with your play action stuff, pulling lineman and you know, cross blocking and doing some of the things that you do with this. In this particular offense, a lot of movement, a lot

of formation, movement. Mult things happen. Defensive linemen, they have to come off the football respect the run, so they choke it down a little bit or even come to a stop if they're really fooled by it, and then they have to restart or else re accelerate if they don't come to a complete stop. That gives you an edge as an offensive lineman, and you know not to mention what it does to the linebackers and the safeties

with respect to potential big chunks down the field. And compound that with wide receivers on the edge they come in and blocking safeties, they're cracking on outside linebackers. Whatever they're doing in the running game, they go at that same movement, that same motion, same look to those guys. And so now you're playing its solid to play the run, and he runs right by you, and all of a sudden,

you get a chunk play down the football field. So, I mean, there are so many, so many benefits to it, and you don't have to be an outstanding pass protector in that type of scheme. Now, at some point in time, you know you're gonna have to protect the quarterback. He's gonna take five seven step drops where he's seven nine

yards deep in the pocket. But if rather than having to do that fifty times a game, or a defensive lineman knows where is and he's just teeing off, you know, fifty straight times, this offense with all the movement, formation, movement um, changing the launch point of the quarterback in and out of the pocket, moving the pocket, all of those kind of things that this offense is going to do,

it's gonna make it a lot easier. I think it's I think it's offensive player friendly, it's offensive line friendly, quarterback friendly, receiver friendly. I think I think it can be all those things. But you know, as we've seen Newing Patriots figured it out. You know, they did a good job. But that's that's that guy's the best to ever do it, Bill Belichick, in terms of scheming on the defensive side of the football, and then he has a great quarterback executing on the other side of it.

But I mean, they got to the Super Bowl running that offense. And this offense is going to be real interesting to watch, Dan because you know there's going to be some ram stuff, some West Coast stuff. You know, all the guys and the staff have had different exposures to different offenses. And they're three of them played quarterback.

They all have input. So it's going to be, you know, a hybrid type of not a mishmatch, but a hybrid type of maybe everything that they like about these offenses put it all together and come up with something that could really create problems from matchup standpoint for defenses. It's going to be fun to watch, But I don't think you have to be a you know, a dominant pass protector as an offensive lineman they have success in this offense. You do have to be a pretty good run blocker though,

to have success. And we've talked about it before. I always harken back to the Houston Texans under Gary Kubiak when they were really lightening it up. I'd watch end zone tape and it would be at the mesh point when the quarterbacks, you know, is he going to hand it off or not to the running back in the play action fake. The offensive lineman are looking the exact same whether they're running it or the play action pass.

You know, they're not lying down the field, but they're doing their inside outside zone type schemes and they're doing it aggress It's like man is that a run? And even looking at the tight ends of receivers, like, I mean, their footwork, everything's the exact same. I'm like man and guests and would literally be a guest in fifty to

fifty it was like seemed like half the time. Dam that's right, I thought there, And even considering down in distance, a lot of times they do that play acts and stuff. On second and eight, second and nine, you think they probably probably passed here and they're going to run it. Third and four they run it, you know, sometimes third and two, I think I gonna run it. No, it's

a play action pass. So if you get that running game going, you can be real contrarian, you know, in your play calling and really get the defense on their heels and put them in a guessing game. Then you got you got a leg up for sure. How much did that scheme help Andrew Whitworth maintain his status as being known as one of the best left tackles in the NFL in his late thirties, Yeah, I think I

think a lot. And uh Sullivan the center that um, you know, Sullivan and Whitworth were up there and advanced long on the tooth, and I do think that that you know, rather than just having Wit drop you know, set up and pass protect fifty straight times, you know, or fifty times during the course of a game, you know, in pass protection and Sullivan doing the same thing. I think you know, it makes it makes life easier, There's

no question about it. You know, it's um any anytime, anytime, you can put an element of doubt in a defensive player's mind. This whole game is about confidence, you know, playing with confidence. If you if you think you know exactly you know, you know, you know exactly what to do, and you think your opponent doesn't really know what to do. Man, you feel like you're superman at that point, you know, And it is it's all about putting an element of doubt.

That's why, you know, the defensive side of it. If if you're out there, whatever position it is, and it's like, man, you know, I'm not sure about this. What if he does this? What if he does that? You're done. You're beaten. You're beaten before you even even the stamp of the football. But if you line up and it's like, I know exactly what I'm gonna do. I don't care what he does. I know by rules, by rules. I know what I'm spposed to do. If he does this, I know what

I'm supposed to do. If he does that, I'm gonna go kick his tail. And you know, now you're playing fast, you're playing confidently. And last year we saw a Bengals defense that was playing in doubt and a lot of times, I mean, sometimes guys are giving cushion because they're not sure. You know, they're not supposed to give seven yards cushion. And as a coach, I l y'all to you're kicking him in the butt, pushing them back up close to the line of scrimmage. But when you're not sure, it

drives me nuts. When you teams that the you know, inside the ten yardline, a guy's given four yards cushion in the end zone, Why the heck would you do that? I mean, you know, it's like, you know, get up and challenge some people every once in a while, and so it is. It's all about mindset, it's all about mentality. And if you're a confident athlete, is an athlete that can play fast, and you know that's what you're looking for. We're in the locker room talking to quite a few

of the players on Friday. I got excited just hearing Joe Mixon because he is bubbling with excitement with the opportunity to play in this scheme he is. I think he uh, you know, he led the AFC in rushing last year. You know he's uh, he's obviously coming off of off of that. Now. You know, Lindsay got injured the Broncos he was tracking. There's there's always circumstances and everything.

Bottom line is, though he was number one in the in the AFC rushing the football, he missed two games himself. So he did it in in a fourteen game season. Pretty impressive, um, you know, and I think he wants to build on that. And I think there's always a guy that you know, some guys don't say a boo when they're leading, and they lead by example. Other guys are emotional and vociferous, and you know they not only lead by example, but they lead by um, you know, trying to elevate you

from a verbal standpoint wherever the case. And Joe's Joe's that guy. I mean, Joe's the guy when they're having their competitive periods of practice. Was Joe's like, oh, there's an offense and defensive guy that's you know, getting after each other. Joe's always the offensive guy that's getting after the defense. So he's he's that you know, he's that kind the guy. He's the type a personality guy that way, but he backs it up. And that's that's what you

that's what you like to have. The thing that the things I love about Joe when I watched Joe, if they're up twenty or down twenty, if he makes a big play, he celebrates it, you know, and not necessarily in a way to call attention to Joe. It's just like, yeah, you know, I did exactly what I was supposed to do. And he's he's an excitable football player. I like those kind of guys, you know, and U Joe's not a

selfish player. I think Joe's just a you know, he'll give credit to his offensive line of good, credit to his wide receivers is full if there is one. Everybody tight ends, everybody blocking for him. But he just he wh when a play is executed the way it's supposed to be done, he celebrates it. And I don't I don't see anything wrong with that. Our summer vacation is over. Unbelievable. Here we go. First, first practice up in Dating is

celebrating the one hundredth year of the game. First game played up there in Dating, the Dating Triangles beat the team from Columbus fourteen ZIP. That was big back then. I guess I'm sure it was. The Columbus team name, by the way, was the Panhandles. The gates at Welcome Stadium open at one thirty on Saturday, and admission is free. Practice a schedule to start at two thirty and last for about an hour, followed by an autograph session. If you can't make it, NFL Network will air live coverage.

The Bengals will hold their first practice in downtown Cincinnati on Sunday afternoon at three. Now time for this week's fun fact segment as we get to know a new member of the coaching staff. He was John Gruden's quarterbacks coach last year in Oakland after earning a Super Bowl ring with the Denver Broncos. Time for some fun facts with Bengals offensive coordinator Brian Callahan. The Bengals list your hometown as Champagne, Illinois, but as the son of a coach,

I'm guessing you lived all over the place. As a kid, was that the case. Yeah, for the most part, I lived in I really got I went to high school in one place, so birthplace with Champaign, Illinois. My dad was at the University of Illinois. But we moved to Arizona and north to Carpondale and Madison, Wisconsin. I would say Madison is kind of where my childhood was kindergarten through fifth grade. And then when we lived in South Jersey, when I was in middle school with my dad was

the Eagles. And then I went to high school out in the Bay Area and my dad was with the Raiders. So I got through high school in one place. I was fortunate. It's not always the case for every coaches kids. So but yeah, we moved around a little bit. You probably learned how to make friends quickly. I loved moving around, and I think when you look back, and I'm actually kind of excited for my kids to have that experience. I've lived in most major geographical areas of the country.

You get to meet a bunch of different types of people. It allows you to learn how to get along with people, allows you to learn how to make friends you don't know anybody. I think it helped me as a kid grown up to be a little more outgoing and put myself out there and learned how to make a friend or two and needed. We're doing fun facts with Brian Callahan. Your dad, Bills, the former head coach of the Oakland Raiders and the Nebraska Cornhuskers. He's currently lead the offensive

line coach of the Washington Redskins. Were you allowed to go behind the scenes with his teams as a kid? Oh? Yeah, that was the best part about being a coach's kid. If you love football. What a great way to grow up. I was in I was in OTAs and training camps, and I worked in the equipment room. I used to go to practice and throw, so I would be out there throwing individual drills as a high school kid, which

was a great experience. I got to throw some pretty good players in Oakland there for a couple of years. And yeah, I got to sit in meetings. So oddly enough, I used to sit in John Gruden's quarterback meetings when I was fourteen and fifteen years old and he was still the head coach there, and low and behold, a bunch of years later, I get to go work for him.

So yeah, I got to see kind of all of it, from meetings to dealing with the players and being at practice and being around and I had to get occasional reminder that whatever I heard in the field as it wasn't okay to bring back to the house. But yeah, I got to see you quite a bit. For a young kid, I've been hanging around training camps since I was about eleven or twelve. And who are some of the guys who were throwing too in Oakland? Tim Brown,

Jerry Rice, those two guys, those pretty good players. Um you know, then those were those areasly too that stand out. But then to get to be around a guy like Rich Gannon as a high school high school athlete, to see him and he was always great to me and answer questions, and I got a chance to pick his brain here and there, and uh, you know, Jim Harbaugh was a quart to control coach. Then David Shaw was on that staff. A bunch of really really good coaches,

Mark Trustman. There's guys that have been around coaching pro football for a long time and head coaches in college. So just to be able to grow up around that environment where there's a bunch of guys at that point where they were young too, that you know, took an interest in me and helped me and answer questions when I had questions. So it was a great experience growing up. Kind of suits my current profession. I'll say, in his first year as a head coach, your dad took the

Raiders to the Super Bowl. Unfortunately the game against Tampa Bay didn't turn out well. But where are your most vivid memories of that season and that Super Bowl appearance? Quite a bit. I was. I was a freshman in college, so I had a chance. I was. I was into it. It was very it was important to me. I was proud, I was was excited for my dad. So I remember remember a Pittsburgh game where they threw the ball I don't know, like sixty sometimes and beat the Steelers because

the Steelers front was really good that year. They're hard to run the ball against. I just remember a bunch of Charlie Gardner highlights. I remember Tyrone Wheatley kind of smashing people down when they needed him too. Um and then just I just remember specifically just how great of a season rich Gannon had that year's NFL MVP. His his accuracy, his preparation that was my first kind of exposure to what an elite prepare, uh, you know how

he approached the game. So there were some really fun moments. I think that AFC Championship game against the Titans when they kind of they they beat him once through the year they played NFC CHAMPIONI game, Oakland was rocking. It was an awesome environment. I'll never forget that. That was a That AFC Championship game is pretty special. That crowd there and the energy electricity at the stadium and cmrays at AFC. The Lamar Hunt Trophy for the to go to the Super Bowl was a was a pretty cool

moment for me and my family. We're visiting with offensive coordinator Brian Callahan. Let's talk about your playing career a little bit. As a high school player, you were part of the greatest winning streak in history day las Sell High School won one hundred and fifty one consecutive games from ninety two to two thousand and four. You were there toward the tail end of the winning streak. Was there a lot of pressure on you and your teammates

to extend the streak? You know, we never we finally felt it, you know, looking back now, but back then. We didn't know any any different. We just we just knew we were really good and we knew that we were gonna I think what the foundation of that program was pretty unique and special. Bob Ladish is an incredible high school football coach and human being, and the way that he made that culture there. We never felt the pressure. There was never any pressure from them, any pressure that

it usually came from the outside. We just wanted to go out and play well and do our job right and whatever our assignment was or whatever our goals or commitments for that week where we wanted to meet those and U I think it's a really good lesson for a young any young athlete. You start to learn that you know, all the all the end results don't really matter as much as the as the process and the

journey of getting to that point. So UM did a really good job of kind of keeping a bunch of young high school kids focused on the on the daily goals and the and the and the doing things the right way all the time, versus just assuming that we were just going to go win a game because we were good or because we've had the street we were gonna go win. It was It was a unique, unique environment to start my football career. I still, I would say, a lot of the things that I learned there I

still carry over into this level. And you know, if there's not a lot of secrets in football, so good teams usually good teams for a reason. Uh. And and a lot of those things that we did there, I've kind of carried throughout my coaching careers a little bit of the foundation of who I am as a football coach, and at the time was as a player, you walked down to UCLA and served as a backup quarterback. When did you side to pursue a career in coaching after my So I walked on, uh. And I was a

typical walk on. I was the fourth or fifth or sixth quarterback, and I'd run some scout team and I enjoyed it, and I love being a part of the team, and I love competing, and I wanted to try to do my best to try to My goal was to go walk on earn a scholarship, mainly approved to myself that I could that I could find a way to do that. But after my sophomore year, obviously I realized that you know, the NFL probably wasn't in my future.

I was gonna have to find another alternative to go earn a living, which you know, for anybody who plays football as a you get to eighteen nineteen years old and all of a sudden you go as a professional career might not be in my future. So I started thinking of the options that were kind of in front of me. And I love football, I love being around it,

so it was the next logical choice. Plus it was a chance to be a graduate assistant at UCLA get my grad degree UCLA, and I figured if I didn't love coaching after being a grad assistant, I'd have two degrees from UCLA and I'd be okay, so I could find something I would like to do with that. But I ended up loving it. I love being a graduate assistant, I love coaching. I loved all of it. So I

pursued the coaching aspect. What was your first full time coaching job and what were the responsibilities My first full time coaching job, I was the freshman offensive coordinator at Unipero Serra High School in sam Mateo, California, which is Tom Brady's alma mater. Good Good High School program, Competitive

Catholic League in the Bay Area. But that was I was a freshman football coach and you're only You're only allowed thirteen coaches on the staff at the time in the league, so it kept them from having all kinds of coaches and you had to have x amount of them on campus. So I took a job as a full time teacher and UH assistant football coach, and that was my first full time gig, and I loved every second of it. To me, it actually some of the most fun I've ever had coaching. I was coaching high

school kids. It's I wasn't ready at twenty three years old to settle down for the next forty years as a high school teacher and coach. It just wasn't. It wasn't for me at that time, so I decided I wanted to keep pushing further. But um, that was my first full time job, and I loved every second. I still talked to a bunch of the kids that I coached there. We're doing fund facts with Brian Callahan as an NFL assistant coach. You were part of a Super

Bowl winning staff with the Broncos in twenty fifteen. Turned out to be Peyton Manning's final game. Describe Peyton Manning boy, how much time you got. He was incredible. He was incredible to me. My role, especially that year, had kind of morphed. I was a little bit of a I'd kind of played the go between between him and coach Kubiak because I was one of the few guys that was still there that knew kind of everything about how

he had done things previously. We were trying to transition the system a little bit at the time to what Gary had done for so long, so we kind of had to marry these two systems together, and that kind of became my middle role. There was with that, And the best part about being around him was the challenge every day was you had to be on and he had He'd have a thousand questions and he'd ask you, and he had to be affirmative in your answers and

you had to know what you were talking about. And over if the course of four years that I kind of earned his respect. I think in that are for my preparation to help him, And I think that when you get to the when you deal with guys like that, the challenge is the most fun. They keep you on

your toes. There's you know, there was never a never a moment where I didn't feel like I had to be studying or on whatever it was repreparing for and it and it pushed me and made me a much better a much better coach, and a much better football mind because the way he kind of stimulated and made me think about things, and then just getting the overall picture of what the quarterback position is supposed to look like, how to go about your daily business, how to manage,

how to be in the locker room, how he went about preparing, how he practiced, the intensity at which he practiced, and in meetings at eighteen years into the league, that every day was like a new day, like he had never heard the information before. It was really really impressive, and I'm very grateful to have been around that and to him to allow me to be a part of that journey for four years in Denver. It was it was really it was very challenging and it was a

lot of fun. Where it's your super Bowl ring and when do you show it off? A super Bowl ring is in a safe. Um it is here in Cincinnati, but it's in a safe and I show it off. You know, I've never actually worn it to be totally. I've never I've never worn it anywhere except to the ring ceremony in Denver that that's at the end of that year. Um. I show it occasionally and people kind of ask about it. I don't take it out too often, but it is I assume at some point later in

my life I will. But it's really big and gaudy and it's it's almost over the top. I just I don't know when to wear it. I don't know, you know, there's probably events at some point in some reunion and someday I'll wear it too. But they're really not meant to be worn anymore. No, they're they're they're so big that they they're they're more of a presentation piece than they are. I have a replica of the super Bowl trophy. That's it's it's in my house and that tends to

kind of quell most of the curiosity about it. And every now and against my gonna be ring and if I have it there, I'll be happy to show it. You're off the hot seat. I appreciate the time, best of luck this year, very much appreciate it. And that's going to do it. For this week's podcast. If you haven't done so already, don't forget to subscribe on iTunes, stitch, your Google Play, Spotify or pod Bean, and if you have a minute, please give it a rating or leave

a comment. Your feedback has been helpful and those five star ratings help more Bengals fans find this podcast. I'm Dan Horde and thanks for listening to The Bengals Booth Podcast.